€10.3b EU aid for French agriculture

FARMERS and other agriculture sector businesses in France received €10.3 billion in the last round of European subsidies.

All European countries have been obliged to publish on the internet a list of 2008 beneficiaries of subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) and how much they got.

France’s figures reveal that a diverse set of bodies receive agricultural subsidies, including large food industry firms and charities as well as farmers.

Food firms received €580 million in investment and help towards restructuring or export. Poultry firm Doux was one of the biggest individual recipients, with €63 million.

Charitable bodies received a total €64 million which included food aid for the poorest people given out by bodies like the Restaurants du Coeur and distributing milk in schools. Local authorities and forestry bodies also received some help.

However it was farmers who received the bulk of the aid, divided into direct grants and money for rural development.

Farmers who received direct grants got an average of €20,000 each, ranging from 10% who received more than €50,000 to 30% who received less than €5,000. For rural development the average per recipient was €5,700.

Farming union Coordination Rurale said they were concerned about what use would be made of this information “thrown out for public opinion to feast on without any real explanations.”

They said 75% of farmers earned the minimum wage. The subsidies were only necessary due to the drop in food prices since the 1990s because of the EU’s policy of aligning them with those across the world. Farmers would rather “live in a dignified way from their work, with reasonable prices,” they said.

‘I’m a French farmer – hear me out’: Interviews in May Connexion out in newsagents now.